Each year at the nursery we take questions from customers asking what type of soil we have--is it acidic, neutral or basic? Some people even go to the work of buying a pH test to determine for themselves just how acidic or basic their soil is. Frankly, though, it's hardly worth the money to have your soil professionally tested. Why? Our soil in the Northwest is notoriously acidic. Period. If [...]
Gardening is an exciting hobby if for no other reason than no two days spent outside are exactly alike. Although the changes from day to day are incremental, go away for a week and you’re sure to notice how much things have changed the minute you pull into your driveway. Likewise, the shift from summer to fall brings sweeping changes to the landscape and to the rhythms of this hobby [...]
Gardeners are by nature learners. This hobby we call “gardening” is not one to be mastered—with new plants, new insect and disease issues, and weather conditions constantly in flux, the school of gardening has no graduates as we all learn more skills and gain fresh knowledge with each passing season. As spring unfolds, you may be discovering new issues around your yard you need to address, so let’s dive into [...]
Charles Dickens once wrote of sunny March days as “summer in the light and winter in the shade.” With the promise of sunny, warmer weather arriving in the coming days, the chilly late winter we’ve been experiencing lately may begin to shift to real spring, when even the shade isn’t so wintry. As we gardeners excitedly get outside to feel the sun on our skin and work the soil in [...]
If I had to pick a favorite season, my choice would have to be autumn. Cool, crisp mornings and warm sunny afternoons; occasional rains returning and bringing the earthy, welcome smell we call petrichor; and the opportunity to get out in the yard and reimagine gardens and containers for a new season—all these bring me almost as much excitement as the thrill of spring. With a new season upon us, [...]
It’s been said that March is “in like a lion, out like a lamb,” and thankfully--at least for a few days each week--the latter half of this month has proved the axiom somewhat true, with pleasant weather and sunny days. As we inch toward warmer spring gardening weather and with daylight hours rapidly lengthening, there are some key tasks to accomplish outdoors this in these first weeks of spring—all of [...]
Ben Franklin once said that “nothing is certain in life except death and taxes,” but he had obviously never visited the Pacific Northwest in autumn and experienced the rainy season that, though delayed this year, has finally arrived. As the traditional wet fall season begins to take hold in Western Washington, this month is a great time to get a head start on next year’s gardening success, so here [...]
Foolish me—I thought that after all the rain we had from last October through early June, we might just escape the summer wildfire smoke we’ve experienced the last few years. Although some forecasters predicted a cool, wetter-than-normal summer, since early summer it’s been very dry and warm, and with wildfires burning once again in our mountains, even the most rain-weary among us are wishing for a good, soaking rain. With [...]
With regular soaking rains, cool temperatures, and crisp sunny days marked by the slanting rays of a sun sinking further into the southern sky, there’s little doubt that autumn is here to stay. As you work at cleaning up your yard and getting your garden ready for winter, here are a few items to keep your lawn and garden healthy and thriving throughout the months to come. First, while our [...]
Photographers call it the “golden hour,” that magical first hour after sunrise and last hour before sunset when the lighting is just perfect for photography. If I might, I think we gardeners could borrow the idea for our hobby, for certainly September is one of the “golden months.” With warm days, cool nights, abundant sunshine but occasional showers—this time of year is just about perfect in my book. As we [...]
